The 411 on Monkeypox

It's not enough that we're still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, but now there is a new viral outbreak that has health officials concerned.

This time, it’s monkeypox, a much less dangerous relative of smallpox.

The first cases of the disease began cropping up in early and mid-May in Europe and other places outside of Central and West Africa, where monkeypox is endemic. As of June 3, there have been 25 confirmed cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It's the worst U.S. outbreak of monkeypox since 2003, when there were 47 cases. 

The outbreak is unusual and abnormally large, but experts say the risk to most individuals is very low.

What is monkeypox? How is it transmitted? What are the symptoms and how severe is it? Science Editor Jessica McDonald answers those and other questions in her article "Q&A on Monkeypox." 

Reader: Why don’t you tell them what the vaccines are made of??  Go ahead, I dare you!!  University of Pennsylvania, yep—corrupt and money hungry as usual.  Who do you think you are fooling?  Whose facts are you using anyway?  Faucis? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: You seem unfamiliar with our website. In fact, we do tell readers "what the vaccines are made of." We have done so on multiple occasions. 

In March 2021, we posted an item titled “How do we know what ingredients are in a vaccine?” That item provides links to the list of ingredients for each approved and authorized COVID-19 vaccine. 

We also provide information about vaccine ingredients in each of our guides for the COVID-19 vaccines: Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. 

In the Pfizer guide, for example, we write:

The only people the FDA says should not receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are those who have had a serious allergic reaction to a previous dose of the vaccine or one of its ingredients. The CDC advises not getting the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine if you have had any kind of immediate reaction, even if not severe, to a dose of the vaccine or one of its ingredients, such as polyethylene glycol.

If you click on the link on the word “ingredients,” you will be taken to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention page that provides information about COVID-19, including “Ingredients included in COVID-19 vaccines (Appendix F).”

We wrote a separate story when Pfizer changed its vaccine formula: “Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 Vaccine Formulation Tweaked to Improve Stability.”

We have tagged 11 stories with the word “ingredients,” but there are many other articles where we include some information about vaccine ingredients and the platforms used by each vaccine -- mRNA in the case of Pfizer and Moderna, and adenovirus viral vector for J&J.

So, yes, you can find information on our website about what the vaccines are made of, and we provide relevant links to information from the CDC and Food and Drug Administration. Thanks for giving me the chance to explain.

Wrapping Up

Here's what else we've got for you this week:

• "Q&A on Biden’s Gun Proposals": In a prime-time speech to the nation, President Joe Biden spoke about gun violence and his proposals to reduce it. Here, we answer common questions about some of the statistics the president cited and actions he proposed.
• "Tactical Unit, Not Off-Duty Officer, Killed Uvalde Gunman": Jacob Albarado, who has been described in media reports as an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer, helped students escape the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24. But online rumors falsely claim he was the CBP officer who killed the shooter. Albarado has said in interviews, “I didn’t shoot the guy.”
• "Ask SciCheck Files: The Relationship Between Mental Health and Mass Shootings": In the wake of mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, some officials have cited mental illness as a reason for the unprovoked attacks. But as we’ve explained before, having a mental illness isn’t predictive of who will perpetrate a mass shooting.

• "‘La OMS no tiene autoridad para dictar políticas de salud en EE. UU.’": La Organización Mundial de la Salud puede hacer recomendaciones tras la declaración de una emergencia internacional, pero no tiene control sobre las decisiones de ninguna nación. Sin embargo, algunos conservadores en EE. UU. aseveran falsamente que enmiendas propuestas por el gobierno de Biden a las regulaciones existentes de salud internacional, y un nuevo tratado sobre pandemias de la OMS, amenazarán la soberanía de EE. UU. 
• "Documentos de Pfizer muestran que su vacuna es muy eficaz, contrario a lo que dicen publicaciones en redes sociales": La vacuna contra el COVID-19 de Pfizer/BioNTech mostró una eficacia final del 91% contra la enfermedad sintomática en el ensayo clínico de fase 3. Publicaciones en las redes sociales afirman erróneamente que documentos de Pfizer publicados recientemente muestran que la vacuna tiene una “eficacia de un 12%”. Esto parece ser una lectura errónea de datos publicados hace más de un año. 
• "Navarro vincula erróneamente a Fauci con el origen de la pandemia": Estados Unidos financió indirectamente algunas investigaciones sobre los coronavirus en murciélagos en un laboratorio de Wuhan, China. Pero esos experimentos no pudieron haber producido el coronavirus que causa el COVID-19, porque los virus usados eran muy distintos. Sin embargo, el exasesor de la Casa Blanca sobre comercio, Peter Navarro, repitió la falacia de que el Dr. Anthony Fauci “mató a mucha gente” al financiar el laboratorio.